The Being of Man and His Future Evolution

Schmidt Number: S-1858

On-line since: 30th January, 2005

FORGETTING

Berlin, 2nd November 1908

Today let us look at
one of those aspects of spiritual science that show us how well
qualified anthroposophy is to throw light on life in the widest
sense. Not only does this knowledge help us understand everyday life,
it also throws light on the great span of human existence that
includes the time between death and a new birth.

Spiritual
science can be of great help to us just where daily life is
concerned; it can help us solve many problems and show us how to cope
with life. Those people who cannot see into the depths of existence
fail to understand many things they are encountering every moment of
the day. The questions that cannot be answered out of sense
experience mount up, and, being unanswered, remain problems that have
a disturbing effect on life, breeding discontent. Being discontented
in life, however, can never serve man's evolution nor his true
welfare. We could enumerate hundreds of such life problems that are
far more deeply illuminating than people usually imagine.

A
word that contains many such problems is the word ‘forgetting’.
You all know it as the word indicating the opposite of what we call
the retaining of a mental image or a thought or impression. Certainly
you will all have had some distressing experiences with what is
conveyed by the word forgetting. You will all know the annoying
experience you often have if one or another idea or impression has,
as we say, slipped your memory. You may then have wondered why such a
thing as forgetting has to belong to the phenomena of life.

Now
it is only with the help of the facts of occult life that you can get
answers to a thing like this, that is, answers that are of any value.
You know, of course, that memory or remembering has something to do
with what we call man's etheric body. So we can also assume that the
opposite of memory, namely forgetting, will have something to do with
the etheric body. Perhaps we are justified in asking if there is any
significance in the fact that the things a human being has had at
some time in his life of thought can also be forgotten? Or do we have
to be satisfied with characterising forgetting in a purely negative
way, as so often happens, and say that it is a defect of the human
soul not to be able to remember everything all the time? We shall
only throw light on forgetting by turning our attention to its
opposite and considering the nature and significance of memory.

If
we say that memory has something to do with the etheric body, we
ought to ask ourselves how it happens that the etheric body acquires
this task of retaining the impressions and thoughts in man, when the
etheric body is present in plants where it has an essentially
different task? We have often spoken of the fact that in contrast to
the stone a plant has its whole material nature permeated by an
etheric body. And this etheric body in the plant is the principle of
life in a restricted sense, and also the principle of repetition. If
the plant were only subject to the activity of the etheric body,
then, beginning from the root of the plant, the leaf principle would
repeat indefinitely. It is due to the etheric body that the parts of
a living entity repeat again and again, for it is the etheric body
that wants to keep on reproducing the same thing. That is why life
has such a thing as so-called propagation, the bringing forth of its
own kind, for this is due fundamentally to an activity of the etheric
body. Everything depending on repetition in man or animal is
attributable to the etheric principle.

The
repetition of one vertebra after another in the spine comes from this
activity of the etheric body. The termination of the plant's growth
at the top, and the gathering up of its whole growth in the blossom
is due to the astrality of the earth descending from without into the
growth of the plant. The fact that in man the vertebrae of the spine
widen and become the hollow bones of the cranium arises through the
activity of man's astral body. So we can say that everything
which brings things to a conclusion is subject to the astral
principle and all repetition to the etheric principle. The plant has
this etheric body, and man has it too. Of course there can be no
question of memory in the plant. For to assert that the plant has a
kind of unconscious memory with which it notes what the leaf it
produced was like, grows a little further and then produces the next
leaf on the pattern of the first, this kind of assertion leads to the
strange illusions seen today in a recent trend of natural science.
Some people even say that heredity is due to a kind of unconscious
memory. We could almost call this bringing nonsense into natural
scientific literature, for to speak of memory in the plant is
actually sheer dilettantism on a higher level.

It
is with the etheric body, which is the principle of repetition, that
we are concerned. To be able to grasp the difference between the
plant's etheric body and man's, which, in addition to the qualities
of the plant's etheric body also has the capacity to develop memory,
we shall have to become clear about the fundamental difference
between a plant and a human being. Imagine planting a seed in the
earth; out of it a quite definite plant will arise. From a grain of
wheat a wheat stalk and ears will grow, and out of a bean will come a
bean plant. You will have to admit that the plant's development is in
a certain way irrevocably determined by the nature of the seed. It is
true that the gardener may bring his influence to bear on it and
alter and improve the plant by means of all sorts of horticultural
methods. But that is really an exception to the rule, and is only of
minor significance compared with the fact that a particular seed will
produce a plant of a definite shape and growth. Is this also the case
with man? Up to a point this is certainly so, but only up to a
certain point. When a human being arises out of the embryo we see
that his development is also enclosed within certain limits. Negroes
come from negro parents, white children from white parents, and we
could add various other examples to show that human development, just
like the plant's, is also enclosed within certain limits. This limit,
however, only extends as far as the physical, etheric and astral
nature. Certain things can be traced in the permanent habits and
temperamental nature of a child that show similarities with the
temperament and instincts of his ancestors. But if the human being
were just as enclosed within the limits of a certain form of growth
as the plant is, then there would be no such thing as education, as
the development of soul and spiritual qualities. If you imagine two
children who have different parents but who are very similar with
regard to ability and external characteristics, and then imagine that
one of these children is neglected and does not have much education,
while the other is carefully brought up and sent to a good school
where his capacities are properly developed, you could not possibly
say that this development of the child's capacities was already there
in embryonic form as with a bean. The bean grows from the seed in any
case without our needing to educate it. That belongs to its nature.
Plants cannot be educated, but human beings can. We can pass
something on to the human being and put something into him, whereas
we cannot put anything of the kind into a plant. Why is this? Because
the etheric body of the plant always has a certain finite number of
inner laws which unfold from one seed to the next and have a definite
round beyond which they cannot go. Man's etheric body is different.
Besides the part that is used for growth, which is that part of his
being that is also enclosed within certain limits like the plant,
man's etheric body has as it were another part too, a free part,
which does not have a natural use unless the human being is taught
all kinds of things through his education, and things are thereby put
into his soul which this free part of the etheric body deals with. So
there is actually a part of man's etheric body that is not used by
his organic nature. Man keeps this part of the etheric body for his
own use; he uses it neither for growth nor for his natural organic
development, but keeps it as a free organ with which he can take in
the ideas of education.

Now
the first thing that happens in this process of acquiring ideas is
that man receives impressions. Man always has to receive impressions,
for the whole of education is based on impressions and on the
co-operation between etheric body and astral body. To receive
impressions we need the astral body, but in order to retain these
impressions, so that they do not disappear again, we need the etheric
body. Even the minutest, apparently most trivial memory-picture needs
the activity of the etheric body. To perceive an object you need the
astral body, but to remember it when you turn your head away you have
to have the etheric body. The astral body is necessary for
perception, but to have an idea, a mental image, you need the etheric
body. Even though very little activity of the etheric body is
necessary for the retaining of ideas, so little that it hardly need
be taken into account until it comes to permanent habits,
inclinations, changes of temperament and so on, you still need the
etheric body for remembering. It must be there for you to so much as
remember one single mental image. For all retaining of mental images
is based in a certain sense on memory.

Now
through the impressions of education, through man's spiritual
development, we have put all sorts of things into this free etheric
organ, and we can now ask ourselves whether this free etheric organ
has any significance at all for a person's growth and development.
Yes it has! The older a man becomes — not so much in his youth
— all that has been incorporated into the etheric body through
the impressions of education gradually begins to participate in the
whole life of the human body, also in an inward way. And the best way
of forming an idea of this participation is to get to know a fact
that is not usually taken into account. People think that what is of
a soul nature is not of much importance for man's life in general.
Yet the following can happen: Suppose a man gets ill simply because
he has been exposed to an unsuitable climate. Now let us imagine that
this man could be ill in two different situations. One might be that
he does not have much to work upon in the free part of his etheric
body. Let us assume that he is a lazy fellow, on whom the outside
world does not make much impression, and whose education has
presented great difficulties, because things go in through one ear
and out through the other. A person like this will not have so much
to help him recover as another person who has an alert, lively mind,
and who in his youth took in a great deal and worked well, and has
therefore provided well for the free part of his etheric body. It
will, of course, still have to be proved by external medicine why the
process of recovery meets with greater difficulties in the one than
in the other. This free part of the etheric body that has grown
energetic through many impressions asserts itself, and its inner
mobility contributes to the healing process. In innumerable cases
people owe their rapid or painless recovery to the fact that when
they were young they received impressions with lively interest. There
you see the influence the mind has on the body! In the case of
recovery from an illness, it makes the world of difference if we have
to deal with a man who goes through life with a dull mind, or with a
man whose free etheric body, instead of being heavy and lethargic has
remained alive. You can see this for yourself if you look at the
world with your eyes open and notice how mentally lazy and mentally
active people behave when they are ill.

You
see then that man's etheric body is something quite different from a
mere plant's. The plant lacks this free part of the etheric body
which furthers the development of man, in fact man's whole
development depends on his having this free part of the etheric body.
If you compare the beans of thousands of years ago with the beans of
today, you will notice a certain difference, of course, but beans
have basically retained the same form. If, however, you compare the
people of Europe in the time of Charlemagne with people today: why do
present day people have such different thoughts and feelings? It is
because they have always had a free part of their etheric body with
which they could take something in and transform their nature. All
this holds good in general. Now we must look at the way all that we
have been describing works in particular instances.

Let
us take the case of a man who cannot obliterate from his memory an
impression he receives, and so the impression just stays there. It
would be a strange thing if you had to think that everything that had
made an impression on you since your childhood, every day of your
life, from morning till night, were always in your mind. You know of
course that it is only present after death for a certain time. And
there is a good reason for it then. But man forgets it during life.
All of you have not only forgotten innumerable things that happened
to you when you were little, but also a lot of things that happened
last year, and even a certain amount that happened yesterday. A
mental image that has gone from your memory, that you have
“forgotten”, has by no means disappeared from your whole
being, your whole spiritual organism. Far from it. If you saw a rose
yesterday and have now forgotten it, the picture of the rose is still
in you, as well as all the other impressions you have received, even
though they have been forgotten by your immediate consciousness.

Now
there is a tremendous difference between a mental image whilst it is
in our memory and after we have forgotten it. So let us imagine a
mental picture we have formed of an external impression, and now have
in our consciousness. Then let us see with our soul's eye how it
gradually disappears and is forgotten. It is there nevertheless, and
remains within the whole spiritual organism. What does it do there?
What does this so-called forgotten image do? It has a very important
function. From the moment of being forgotten it begins to work in the
right way on the free part of the etheric body we have been speaking
about, and make it serviceable for man. It is as though it were not
digested until then. As long as the human being uses it for acquiring
knowledge it does not yet work inwardly to bring life into the free
etheric organ. The moment it sinks into oblivion it begins to work.
So it can be said that work is continually in progress in and upon
the free part of the etheric body. And what is it that does the work?
It is the forgotten ideas! That is the great blessing of forgetting!
As long as a mental image remains in your memory you connect it with
an object. If you observe a rose and carry the mental image of it in
your memory, you connect the image of the rose with the outer object.
The image is thus chained to the external object and has to send it
its inner force. The moment you forget the image, however, you set it
free. Then it begins to develop germinal forces which work inwardly
on man's etheric body. So our forgotten memories have great
significance for us. A plant cannot forget. It cannot receive
impressions either, of course. It would not be able to forget,
anyway, because its whole etheric body is used for growth, and there
is nothing left over. If mental pictures could enter into the plant,
it would still have nothing there to be developed.

Everything
that happens, however, happens in conformity to law. Everything that
is meant to develop and yet is not helped in its development creates
a hindrance to development. Everything in an organism that is not
included in its development becomes a hindrance to development. If,
for instance, all kinds of substances were secreted inside the eye
and could not be absorbed by the general fluid of the eye, then sight
would be impaired. Nothing must be allowed to remain that cannot be
taken in and absorbed. It is the same with mental impressions. If,
for instance, a man could receive impressions and never get them out
of his consciousness, it could easily happen that the free part of
the etheric body would be undernourished and would consequently be
more of a handicap than a help to a man's development. There you have
the reason why it is bad for a person to lie awake at night and not
be able to get certain impressions out of his mind because he is
worried about something. If he could forget them they would work
beneficially on his etheric body. In this case it is obvious what a
blessing it would be to forget, and at the same time you have an
indication of the necessity not to force yourself to remember
something, but rather learn to forget it. It is the worst thing
possible for a man's inner health if there are certain things he just
cannot forget.

What
we can say about everyday things of the moment also applies to things
of an ethical-moral nature. A warm-hearted disposition that does not
bear grudges is really based on this, too. Bearing resentment preys
on a person's health. If someone has done us a wrong and we remember
the impression it made on us every time we see him, then we relate
this image to him and let it stream outwards. But if we could manage
to greet him warmly next time we meet him, just as though nothing had
happened, that would really do some good. It is a fact and not a
fantasy that it does some good. A resentful thought like this is dull
and ineffective when turned outwards, but no sooner is it turned
inwards than it becomes soothing balm for many a thing in man. These
things are facts, and they help us see even more meaning in the
blessing of forgetting. Forgetting is not a mere defect in man but
one of the most salutary things in human life. If man were only to
develop his memory, and if everything that makes an impression on him
were to remain in his memory, his etheric body would have more to
carry, and its contents would become more and more extensive, but at
the same time it would become more and more dried up. It is thanks to
forgetting that man is capable of developing. Besides, no mental
image is completely lost to man. This is seen best in that mighty
memory picture we have immediately after death. There it becomes
apparent that no impression is entirely lost.

Having
touched shortly on the blessing of forgetting both in the neutral and
the moral sphere of daily life, let us now consider how forgetting
works in the large span of life between death and a new birth. What
actually is Kamaloca, that period of transition human beings go
through before entering Devachan, the spiritual world proper?
Kamaloca exists because immediately after death the human being
cannot forget the inclinations, desires and pleasures he had in life.
At death man first of all leaves his physical body behind him. Then
the mighty memory tableau I have often described stands before his
soul. After two, three or at the most four days this has completely
finished. Then a kind of extract of the etheric body remains. Whilst
the greater part of the etheric body withdraws and dissolves in the
general ether, a kind of essence or framework of the etheric body
remains behind, but in a concentrated form. The astral body is the
bearer of all the instincts, desires, passions, feelings, sensations
and pleasures. Now the astral body would not be able to be conscious
of the tormenting privations in Kamaloca if it were not for the fact
that it is still connected with the remainder of the etheric body,
which gives it the continued possibility of remembering what it
enjoyed and desired in life. And the breaking of habit is really
nothing else but a gradual forgetting of all that chains the human
being to the physical world. So if man wants to enter Devachan, he
must first learn to forget all that binds him to the physical world.
Thus we see that man is tormented here, too, because he still has
memories of the physical world. Just as worries can torment man when
they refuse to leave his memory, so likewise can the inclinations and
instincts that remain after death torment him, and this tormenting
memory of the connections with life expresses itself in all that the
human being has to pass through during his Kamaloca period. Not until
he has succeeded in forgetting all his wishes and desires for things
of the physical world do the achievements and fruits of his previous
life appear, in readiness for the work of Devachan. There they become
sculptors and overseers working on the form of the life to come. For
man largely spends his time in Devachan working on the new form he is
to have when he re-enters earthly life. This work of preparing his
future being gives the feeling of bliss which he has throughout
Devachan. When man has passed through Kamaloca he begins the
groundwork for his future form. The life in Devachan is always spent
in using that extract he has brought with him for constructing the
prototype of his next form. He forms this prototype by working into
it the fruits of the past life. He can only do this, however, by
forgetting the things that made Kamaloca so difficult for him.

We
have seen that the suffering and privation in Kamaloca is caused by
the human being's inability to forget certain connections with the
physical world, and then the physical world hovers in front of him
like a memory. However, when he has passed through the waters of
‘Lethe’, the River of Forgetfulness, and has learnt to
forget, the achievements and experiences of his past incarnation can
be put to work to build up bit by bit the prototype of the coming
life. Now the joyful bliss of Devachan begins to take the place of
suffering. When worries torment us in ordinary life, and particular
images remain stuck in our memory, we introduce something hard and
lifeless into our etheric body which undermines our health.
Similarly, after death we have something in our being which
contributes to our sufferings and privations, until, through
forgetting, we have rid ourselves of all connection with the physical
world. Just as these forgotten memories can become a source of health
in man, so can all the experiences of the past life become a source
of bliss in Devachan when the human being has passed through the
River of Forgetfulness and has forgotten everything that binds him to
life in the world of the senses.

So
we see then that these laws of forgetting and remembering are also
absolutely valid for life in its broadest sense.

Now
you might ask: How can a man after death have any memory pictures at
all of what happened in his past life, if he must forget this life?
Someone might say: Can you talk about forgetting at all, seeing that
man has laid aside the etheric body with which remembering and
forgetting are connected? After death, of course, remembering and
forgetting assume a slightly different form. They change in such a
way that a reading of the Akashic Record takes the place of ordinary
remembering. The happenings of the world have not disappeared, of
course, they just appear objectively. When the memory of connections
with physical life vanishes in Kamaloca, these events appear in quite
another form, and arise before man in the Akashic Record. Then he
does not need the connection with life which comes from ordinary
memory. Every question of this kind that might be asked will find an
answer. But we must leave ourselves time to do this gradually, for it
is impossible to have all the answers straight away at our finger
tips.

Now
we shall understand many a thing in everyday life, if we know about
the things just discussed. Much of what belongs to the human etheric
body is shown in the way the temperaments react upon man. We have
said that this enduring characteristic that we call temperament also
has its origin in the etheric body. Let us imagine a person who has a
melancholic temperament and who never gets away from certain mental
images that he is always thinking about. This is something quite
different from a sanguine or a phlegmatic temperament, where the
images just disappear. A melancholic temperament works detrimentally
on a man's health, in the sense we have been considering, whilst a
sanguine temperament can in a certain way be extremely beneficial. Of
course these things must not be taken in such a way that you come to
the conclusion the human being must try to forget everything. But you
can see that the healthy and beneficial side of a sanguine or
phlegmatic temperament and the unhealthy side of a melancholic
temperament can be explained by these very things we have just
learnt. It is natural to ask whether a phlegmatic temperament is also
working in the right way. A phlegmatic who only takes in trivial
thoughts will easily forget them. That will be good for his health.
But if, on the other hand, he takes in no other thoughts than these,
it will not be good for him at all. This gets rather complicated.

The
question as to whether forgetting is just a defect in human nature or
something useful is answered by spiritual science. And we see, too,
that strong moral impulses can follow from the knowledge of such
things. If a man believes it is for his good — and this has to
be taken quite objectively — to be able to forget insults and
injuries done to him, then quite a different impulse will work in
him. But as long as he believes that it does not make any difference,
then no amount of preaching will help. When he knows, however, that
he ought to forget for the sake of his well-being, he will let this
impulse work on him in quite a different way. You need not
immediately call it egoistic; it would be better to express it this
way: If I am ill and feeble, and if I ruin my health spiritually,
psychologically and physically, I am of no use to the world. We can
also consider the question of well-being from an entirely different
point of view. If a man is a thoroughgoing egoist he will not profit
much from such considerations. But whoever has the good of humanity
at heart and is therefore intent on working for it — and also,
indirectly, has his own good at heart — if he is in a position
to think about this, he will also draw moral fruits from such
considerations. And we shall see that if spiritual science works into
human life by showing man the truth about specific spiritual
circumstances, it will give man the greatest ethical-moral impulses,
such as no other knowledge and no merely external moral commands can
do. Knowledge of the facts of the spiritual world, as imparted by
spiritual science is, therefore, a powerful impulse which also in
regard to the moral realm can bring about the greatest progress in
human life.